June 2026 - Feature Release - The Horde Edition

Another year is almost halfway done and here I am yet again with another Horde feature. As my association with death metal doesn't run as deep as some other prime movers on the site, I don't feel I can bring the same depth of releases to the clan as I can some of my others and I struggle to find releases I personally love that few others on the site are familiar with. That said, a band I do love who seem to have been virtually ignored so far are the rather excellent Chicago blackened death metallers Immortal Bird. So here for your consideration is their second full-length, 2015's "Empress/Abscess". I have a short review up that I wrote at the time of release, but intend to fully revisit it and do a proper job some time during the next month.

Anyway, please let us know what you think of it either in a comment on this thread or even as a full review if you prefer.

https://metal.academy/releases/12485

I am familiar with Immortal Bird already and they are a difficult one to pigeon-hole in terms of clans for sure.  There’s definitely death metal in here but there is usually a lot more going on also.  This release is not all that fresh in my mind so I will welcome the opportunity to revisit and review.

A note on your comment above Sonny about not feeling you can bring the same level of depth as other users.  My take on the feature releases is that I nominate a release that I enjoy, that I have discovered and I don’t submit that for judgement of my taste from anyone (and in fairness there is none of that here anyways) more I submit the release to see the opinions of others on that release.  If anyone wildly disagrees it does not mean that evidences deficiencies in my knowledge of the clan at all.  Anyone could rock up here, get involved in the clan feature submission for The Horde and drop in Morbid Angel’s Altars of Madness for a release.  I wouldn’t think “safe choice” or “limited range of knowledge going for an easy one”, I would just drop in some thoughts or a review (time permitting) and enjoy the chance to revisit a classic.

Thanks for that Vinny. One of the big advantages of a small membership of enthusiasts like we have here is that there is no judgment made on people's individual tastes. Comments are only made on the things being discussed and / or reviewed and nobody is arrogant enough to claim absolute authority on the merits of what is essentially a very subjective and personal medium. I think we are also all mature enough to know that any divergence of opinion is also only about the subject and is not in anyway an attack on the person with whose opinion you may not agree. Unfortunately this isn't the case on the internet as a whole where all manner of assholery is rife and seemingly tolerated. That is one of the main reasons that the Academy is my main site for online musical interaction and I hope that level of integrity and respect long continues here.

Here is my new, expanded review:

The Immortal Bird that recorded this 2015 album is very different from the three-piece that exists to this day with only vocalist Rae Amitay remaining. Drummer Gary Naples and guitarist Evan Anderson Berry left not long after "Empress/Abscess" hit the shelves, being replaced by Matt Korajczyk and Nate Madden respectively. Bassist John Picillo left in 2019 and hasn't been replaced with Madden doubling up on both four- and six-string guitars. It is good then that Rae Amity has remained as the only constant factor in the band because there is a rounded depth to her ravaged, bellowing shrieks that would be quite difficult for any other singer to replicate. She has a line in controlled fury that is distinctive and powerful and which would put the ineffectual bellowings of many metal tough guys to shame.

Immortal Bird play an amalgam of black and death metal that sounds immediate and confrontational with a suggestion of crusty sludginess that gives the material a further coating of grimy filthiness along with a twist of dissonance for added discomfort. With the five tracks on "Empress/Abscess" only nudging a hair's breadth over thirty minutes there is never any danger of attention wander, although the more timid listener may want to flee and lock themselves in the bathroom. Comfort is not something that Immortal Bird are interested in dishing up, they have a jagged and angular approach to songwriting that will keep you on you toes and which, with other bands, I often struggle. However just when it feels like the band are pushing you to the edge they have an uncanny ability to suddenly drop into a killer riff and sweep you away on a tide of moshpit fury. I get the feeling that the convulsive nature of the songwriting isn't to appear intellectually sophisticated or technically smug, which I feel is the case with some of the acts who write this way, but it is done with the aim of unsettling and disorienting the listener so that when they drop one of those killer riffs it hits all the harder.

So, overall, with a sometimes challenging but always interesting songwriting style, some genuinely exhliharating riffs and one of, if not the, finest female vocalists in all of metal there is plenty here on this short album to keep drawing me back to it time and again. Immortal Bird are one of those bands that I genuinely cannot fathom why they aren't bigger than they are.

4.5/5